Mine won't be here for another week or so (I gave my first copy to Amey and sometimes I'm pretty sure they opt to send amazon orders via canoe to my island), but I might be able to cookalong via the Amazon look-inside feature until then!

I got this for Christmas from my mom, as well. She was super excited to give me such a pretty cookbook and we had a great time looking it through it together. I think she has weird ideas about vegan cookbooks being full of unappetizing brown food or something, which doesn't make sense since she was equally thrilled to give me Vcon and Viva Vegan. It's true Kansha is in its own category of sumptuousness; it's so filled with photos it can serve as both a cookbook and a coffee table book.

I guess I'm the first person in this thread to have made something from the book. But don't get too excited yet - all I've made so far is sushi rice. And damn, I think that might be from her earlier book, Washoku.

The point of all of this is I am totally down for a cookalong! Let's do it!

Does anyone have this on Kindle? I'd like to know if it has the usual formatting problems when it comes to measurements.

ETA: Nevermind, I just checked and it's not even available on the kindle.

_________________Real vegans eat nothing but organic, grass-fed grass. - FootFaceI avoid protein on principle. - IsaChandraI used to dress up like Wonder Woman but I didn't grow up to an Amazon Princess who dabbles in bondage and flys an invisible jet. -idatetattoedguys

I have a copy from the library now, and it's really gorgeous, nice 25cm square format book with plenty of full-page photos, more like a coffee table book than your typical cookbook.

However, if you don't have access to a well-stocked Japanese grocery, I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you want it just for decor. Nearly every recipe contains some obscure specialty ingredient, not just your relatively easy to find nori, mirin, miso, etc. And much of it is fresh produce you can't just mail order. I'd love to have the stuff to make these recipes, but short of driving an hour into Seattle, it's not very practical for me...

_________________"All PPK gamers should put on their badge of shame right now. You will never leave the no-sex thread." - Vantine"I'm so glad my prison of principles has wifi." - Abelskiver

Made it to the Japaanese market yesterday and picked up a bunch of stuff. I'm going to start making stuff this week - yay!

But yeah, I second what Hovering Dog said. It would be really difficult to make much in this book without a specialty market. If you are looking for a Japanese cookbook with less obscure ingredients, I would recommend this book. It still has some obscure ingredients, but has some recipes that call for your easier to find ingredients like nori, miso, mirin, etc. It's not really geared toward being a pretty coffee table book though and I get the feeling it's a lot less traditional/authentic, but I have no idea as I have never been to Japan.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

The creamy kabocha soup is really good, and pretty quick to make - I made this last night, and would definitely recommend the recipe.

The leek & scallions in tart miso sauce was also very tasty, and I'll make it again, but with some modifications. First of all, it doesn't make much at all - just a couple of tablespoons per person, so I'll double or triple the amount of leeks & scallions. Also, if you have texture issues with rubbery, chewy things, leave out the konnyaku (gelantinous yam loaf). I had to pick all of the pieces of it out because of texture issues. Also, although it's vegan, it smells suspiciously fish-like, and has a kind of rubbery fishy texture to it too.

The rice with mushrooms was a big disappointment. Given the amount of time and effort put into making this recipe (first making the kombu dashi, then using the dashi to make the mushroom stock, then cooking the rice with the mushroom stock) I would have expected it to have more flavor, but it was bland and virtually flavorless, despite the fact that I used three different kinds of Japanese mushrooms (shiitake, maitake and enoki) and that there was also sake, mirin and soy sauce in the mushroom broth. I ended up sprinkling it with soy sauce for flavor.

Yes, a cookalong would be great ! How about we start with any of the recipes listed in the above posts and share our experiences? Due to the availability of specialized ingredients, we may not all be able to make the selected cookalong recipes, but we could still share our experiences with the book and any Kansha recipes we make.

I have the book on loan from our library but before it arrived, I did some searching and found the recipes below online. The Kansha Workshop is good but just starting; not much in the archives yet.

I've made one recipe so far - Udon Noodle Soup with Vegetables and Tofu. The flavour was excellent but you have to be really careful not to over-cook the udon noodles.

I made the creamy kabocha soup and greens with nutty tofu sauce tonight

The kabocha soup was pretty good. I would definitely make it again. I found the simmering time for the squash to be off (I had to simmer way longer than she said to), but maybe my squash was woodier than usual or something.

The greens with nutty tofu sauce were just okay in my opinion (I used spinach for the greens). I think it was a texture thing for me. The fluffy 'sauce' (pureed tofu with tahini, miso, etc) was kind of putting me off, but it wasn't the taste, it was just the general baby-food like feeling in my mouth. But I think that's really a personal preference.

I steamed the nama fu and will have that tomorrow for dinner.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

Made the nama fu with dengaku tonight. I had no idea that the whole steaming seitan sausage thing was Japanese! Anyway, I quite liked the little guys. I wasn't a huge fan of the dengaku sauce before it was broiled, but afterwards it was pretty good.

I have pics of all this stuff on my camera. Need to stop being lazy and actually upload them.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

Made the tofu tofu burgers tonight. I changed up the ingredients because I couldn't find some things/didn't have them on hand. I used panko instead of the rice crackers and I couldn't find the freeze-dried tofu so I just used regular firm tofu.

I was worried these would be too bland, but I actually dug the subtle flavor. I just cooked them in a non-stick pan, no oil. She's not joking when she says they are fragile though. I found it easier to make them super small and even then I had some casualties.

I didn't use the glaze in the recipe, I just topped them with some leftover dengaku sauce I had in the fridge from last night's nama-fu.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

Oh, man. I'm really jealous of every person who has this. I couldn't justify buying it to my father, so it's wish listed for now. Has anyone seen it in stores? I might be able to buy it cash.

_________________Real vegans eat nothing but organic, grass-fed grass. - FootFaceI avoid protein on principle. - IsaChandraI used to dress up like Wonder Woman but I didn't grow up to an Amazon Princess who dabbles in bondage and flys an invisible jet. -idatetattoedguys